The Aging Brain: Exploring the Crossroads of Memory and Attention

Join Dr. Adam Gazzaley from U.C. San Francisco as he explains how the brain and mind change as we get older. Dr. Gazzaley will first give an overview of the changes that occur in our cognitive abilities and our brains with normal aging. He will then describe the latest state-of-the-art scientific tools available to understand the human brain. This will be followed by examples from his lab’s research aimed at understanding the interaction between attention and memory and their discoveries of increased susceptibility to distraction in older adults. Lastly, Dr. Gazzaley will discuss what we might do to keep our brains healthy as we get older.

Dr. Gazzaley was born and raised in New York City. He obtained an M.D. and a Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. His doctoral research focused on receptor plasticity in the hippocampus in normal aging. This research earned him the prestigious 1997 Cortical Scholar Award. He then completed a clinical residency in neurology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Following residency, he traveled to UC Berkeley for a cognitive neuroscience research fellowship and a clinical fellowship in cognitive neurology at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. Dr. Gazzaley is currently an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Physiology at UCSF and the Director of the UCSF Neuroscience Imaging Center (NIC). His research lab focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms of memory and attention in humans, how these processes change with normal aging and dementia, and how we might intervene to improve cognitive abilities.

For more information visit www.vibrantbrains.com/speakers.html

There is no charge for the Science Salon Series and it is open to the public. Seating is limited, however so please be sure to call ahead to reserve your space, our phone number is 415.775.1138.